1270 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established iSSO 
Pnbliihod weekly by the Rnral Publishing Company, 333 West 30th Street. New York 
Herbert W. Collingwood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
tVn. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. i^vle, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION; ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, equal to 8s. 6d., or 
8Sj marks, or 10!* * francs. Remit in money order, express 
order^ personal check or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates, 90 cents per agate line—7 words. References required for 
advertisers unknown to us ; and cash must accompany transient orders. 
“ A SQUARE DEAL” 
We believe that every advertisement in this paper is backed by a respon¬ 
sible person. We use every possible precaution and admit the advertising of 
reliable houses only. But to make doubly sure, we will make good any loss 
to paid subscribers sustained by trusting any deliberate swindler, irrespon¬ 
sible advertisers or misleading advertisements in our columns, and any 
such swindler will be publicly exposed. We are also often called upon 
to adjust differences or mistakes between our subscribers and honest, 
responsible houses, whether advertisers or not. We willingly use our good 
offices to this end. but such cases should not be confused with dishonest 
transactions. We protect subscribers against rogues, but we will not be 
responsible for the debts of honest bankrupts sanctioned by the courts. 
Notice of the complaint must be sent to us within one month of the time of 
the transaction, and to identify it, you should mention The Rural New- 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
Your paper contains very useful information that is 
impossible to get from other sources, which makes it the 
best farm journal published. Y r ou can feel I am very 
much satisfied. james e. hilbekt. 
Wisconsin. 
HAT is a fair statement of what tve try to make 
of The It. N.-Y.—‘‘something that is impossible 
to get from other sources.” 
I am a very busy mortal; day too busy, night too tired, 
to write, but never too tired to read The R. N.-Y. 
Wisconsin. a. m. b. 
We regard that as the truest test of literature. 
There is too much of what Shakespears calls “a 
twice-told tale—told in the dull ear of a drowsy 
roan” 
* 
W E hold it to be a fundamental proposition that 
if a mau has legal title to a piece of land, or, 
as we say, “owns it,” he has the right to raise any 
kind of plant or animal that he sees fit, provided he 
does not do the .public an injury. He should not 
raise poison ivy, wildcats or mad dogs, but if he 
wants to raise any legitimate product he should do 
so, and it should be his property. This refers to 
game as well as to farm crops, aud if several farmers 
on adjoining land will legally combine to protect 
game and preserve it their right to it should he per¬ 
manent. No one should have any right to enter 
their property without their permission. To come on 
a farm and kill the owner’s game should be as much 
of a crime as would be stealing his money. The 
farmer should have as much right to handle and sell 
the game produced and fed on his farm as he has to 
handle and sell potatoes or corn. If there is any¬ 
thing wrong with that proposition will someone state 
clearly what it is? 
* 
T HERE is no question about the great value of 
Alfalfa where it will grow. Wealth follows 
Alfalfa everywhere. The best gain both in city and 
country in population and wealth is found in the 
Alfalfa sections. For Alfalfa brings nitrogen from 
the air, and nitrogen is the element of power. It 
does not follow, however, that the advice to grow 
Alfalfa everywhere and at any cost is always sound. 
There are some soils and localities where Alfalfa is 
not naturally at home. The land is sour or unfitted 
for the crop. While it might be made to grow at 
great expense for lime and drainage, the profit would 
be questionable. We know of cases where Alsike 
clover and Soy beans do well in the natural soil. 
They will give far better crops than Alfalfa without 
great expense, and from a business standpoint it will 
pay better to raise them. This does not apply to any 
farms where there is natural Alfalfa soil. Where 
there is such. Alfalfa will pay better than any other 
fodder. It is not good business, however, to try to 
force Alfalfa upon soils which are not suited to it, 
for with all its virtues it is a dainty and exacting 
crop. 
* 
O UR old friend W. W. Reynolds of Ohio is doing 
great work for the sheepmen and for all who 
wear clothes in giving publicity to the shoddy fraud. 
This is an illusti'ation of what one pei’sistent man 
can do in developing public opinion. Mr. Reynolds 
reached the age when many men would consider 
that they have done their work. He upsets Dr. 
Osier’s theory that man seldom originates anything 
after he gets to be 45. The truth is that the most 
useful asset a man can have is experience, so long 
as it cau be kept sweet and tempered with hope. It 
is true that some men get sour at 50 or even younger, 
and they turn the kindly experience of life into a 
“grouch,” which is the worst contribution they can 
possibly make to the world. The development of 
this campaign for a pure fabrics law shows what a 
patient man with a good cause can accomplish. 
Many of us realize that there are great wrongs in 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
society. We shall not he able to make them right 
until we can convince the majority of Americans 
that they are wrong. We can seldom do this con¬ 
vincing with a broad a x or a sledge hammer. It is a 
matter of education. We may think we are up in 
the high school, hut we have got to go down to the 
primer class in order to get the world started. 
* 
T HE most remarkable outcome of a primary elec¬ 
tion contest has just occurred in Minnesota. 
A. J. Volstead, author of the Prohibition enforce¬ 
ment law, was a candidate for re-election to Con¬ 
gress. He was opposed in the primary by a Lu¬ 
theran minister who was backed by the Non-Par¬ 
tisan League. It was not a contest between “wet” 
and “dry,” because this minister has long been a 
strong Prohibitionist. The chief issue seems to have 
been the charge that Mr. Volstead was an “atheist,” 
who made sport of the Christian religion. This 
charge was made by the minister who opposed Vol¬ 
stead, and as a consequence the latter was defeated 
in the primary. Under the corrupt practices law of 
Minnesota Volstead contested this nomination on 
the theory that the attacks which led to his defeat 
were false and unwarranted. The court has now 
decided in his favor, and given him the nomination, 
stating that the attacks upon his character “consti¬ 
tute a deliberate, serious and material violation of 
the laws of the State.” We are only interested in 
this legal aspect of the case. Under such a decision 
it is evident that a candidate proved guilty of mak¬ 
ing such charges would be thrown out of the contest.. 
Shades of departed politicians! A favorite “argu¬ 
ment” attributed to Horace Greeley in some of his 
political campaigns was, “You lie, you villian, you 
lie!” 
* 
Some months ago an article appeared in The R. N.-Y’. 
as to placing a small motor—one-lialf horsepower—on 
the cutter-bar of the mowing machine to drive the cut¬ 
ting blade. The horses had then only to draw the 
machine; the motor did the work of cutting. Is it 
practical ? H. B. P. 
Massachusetts. 
HAT we described was a little engine fastened 
to a grain-binder and attached so that it 
operated the working parts. This left only the 
weight of the burden to he hauled by the horses. It 
was said to work well. The little engine, with about 
the weight of an ordinary man, sat beside the driver 
and reached out its stout arm to work the machinery. 
It was particularly useful in wet weather, when the 
binder would mire in the mud. The same principle 
has been applied to potato diggers and, we think, to 
manure spreaders. The little engine, seated on the 
machinery, coughing and sputtering its gasoline, ' 
divides work with the team or multiplies the power. 
* 
F IFTY, years ago one of the common farm jokes 
was the story of the mean man who fed the 
blind horse on sawdust. He poured molasses on the 
sawdust, mixed it with a little cornmeal, and the 
blind horse never knew the difference and grew fat 
on it! In those days the idea of eating sawdust was 
considered about as probable as—well, flying without 
a gas balloon, or riding in an automobile, or hearing 
a friend over the wire 500 miles away! But ever 
aud ever the joke of yesterday becomes the solid fact 
of today. Word now comes from the Wisconsin Uni¬ 
versity of experiments in feeding “hydrolized” saw¬ 
dust as a partial substitute for grain. This 'chem¬ 
ically treated sawdust surely proved a partial sub¬ 
stitute for ground barley. The process of treating 
this sawdust is described on the next page. As will 
be seen, sugar is developed, and much of the saw¬ 
dust is made digestible. The food thus prepared con¬ 
tains little protein and must be fed with grains or 
fodder containing that element. It is a great discov¬ 
ery, though the principle is not new. In England 
some years ago a process for treating cottonseed 
hulls with hydrochloric acid and steam was found 
practically successful. It now remains to he seen 
just how far we can go in feeding our animals with 
acids and a saw. There is no use getting excited 
over this discovery. It has not yet been practically 
applied to the business of feeding stock. The the¬ 
ory of artificially digesting crude and tough products 
has been found to be sound and we believe our scien¬ 
tists will find a way to make it practical. Eating 
sawdust! Well, there are men in the world who 
have been forced to “eat crow” because they doubted 
the power of science to master hard problems. 
* 
T HE political managers are certainly doing all 
they can to break down or destroy any benefit 
which the people might obtain through the New 
York jjrimary law. For several years there has been 
talk of repealing the lew. This talk was put out 
July 31, 1920 
mostly as a sort of “feeler” to test, public opinion. 
In every ease the politicians found the farmers 
strongly opposed to repeal. While the law was pur¬ 
posely made as feeble as it well could be, farmers 
know that when the time really comes they can use 
it. as a powerful weapon. Therefore they will not 
consent to its repeal, and the politicians have never 
dared to kill it. They attempt to get around it. by 
calling an “unofficial convention.” This will be a 
gathering of party men controlled by the old wire¬ 
pullers and “managers.” They are to “suggest” a 
set of candidates for the primary nomination. This 
evades the law which was aimed at the old conven¬ 
tion system, yet at the same time keeps the power 
to nominate in the hands of the old wire-pullers. 
For naturally a ticket suggested in that way would 
have every advantage in the primary. An inde¬ 
pendent or progressive candidate would be under 
great disadvantage in a primary controlled by the 
politicians. Our readers should not be deceived by 
any such plausible schemes. The entire design is 
to kill the primary and go back to the old methods. 
The politicians realize the situation this year/ and 
are likely to present far more acceptable candidates 
than would have been the ease if farmers had not 
organized and expressed their opinions. These poli¬ 
ticians do not yet believe that farmers will really 
use the primary to secure what they need. They 
will learn a new lesson about that. Farmers have 
them going now as they never have before in New 
York State. Use the ballot printed on page 1281. 
Roll up a great vote for suitable candidates, and in 
case the “slate” fixed up by the managers does not 
suit, wipe it off as the schoolboys do and be prepared 
to get right iuto the primary with your lead pencil. 
* 
N EW YORK farmers are thoroughly interested in 
the discussion of the game laws now going on. 
One of them has just written the following: 
I have been reading Mr. Trait's answer to Judge 
Whittaker’s article, and can say that I have seldom 
seen a more masterly evasion of all the points at issue. 
I have vowed that I would write no more on the game 
law question, but this may yet drive me out. I have 
never soon a more accurate and impartial account than 
that of the judge, and I should have had a greater idea 
of Mr. Pratt’s intelligence if he had either ignored the 
article or simply said that he was sorry things were so, 
and that the Conservation Commission hoped to be able 
to remedy the more glaring faults. 
Before we are done with this game law question 
something is going to happen. As Mr. Huntington 
intimates on the next page, as soon as farmers really 
understand the matter they will go hunting for a 
remedy, and then they will not pay attention to 
“trespass” signs in the political fields! 
Brevities 
Shoddy is the wolf in sheep’s clothing. 
Now we need full and thorough trials of kudzn— 
offered as a pasture and fodder crop for the North. 
Some men take themselves and their job too .seriously. 
They do not realize that this extra seriousness may he 
a joke to others. 
Of course you are interested in knowing that America 
has a phytopathological society! What about? The 
science of plant diseases. 
The world would starve if it had to depend on the 
big factory farm for its food. It must go to the medium¬ 
sized farm for its surplus. 
Speaking of raising children. It is much easier to 
make a gambler out of a natural minister than to make 
a minister out of a natural gambler. 
Better go over the silo carefully before you start 
filling and see that cracks or holes are filled. It should 
be airtight. Hot air has no place iu the silo. 
Grandfather was a good man, hut what does he 
know now of present day problems? Why blindly vote 
as he did? He might be on the other side if he were 
alive. 
One farmer carried 80 bushels of peas to the public 
market in Johnson City, N. Y., and sold them all at 
retail. This gives an idea of what such a market may 
become. 
After some years’ trial it seems to be decided that 
Sudan grass has made good as a fodder crop. In many 
parts of the country it is displacing the millets after 
a fair trial. 
It was argued that, prohibition would put the hop crop 
completely out of business. The fact is that good qual¬ 
ity hops are now selling at 90 to 95c per lb. The lo\v< i 
grade, which formerly brought 0 to 8c, now sells at SO 
to 85c, and it is said that the' coming crop is large. 
Here is a case where the prophets all went wrong. I ''' 
present market probably comes from people who make 
“tonics” or “home brew” at home. At any rate, the in¬ 
cident shows that it is harder to kill off a standard f-n i 
product that it is to kill a cat. 
